Red tide florida 2016 map full#

To get around this problem and make satellites better at pinpointing algal blooms, Hu and colleagues at the University of South Florida have developed a red tide monitoring system that makes use of MODIS observations of fluorescence, which algal bloom emit in response to exposure to sunlight. This fluorescence data comes from the OCLI sensor on Sentinel 3. The Karenia brevis bloom expanded and intensified in late-July.

Red tide florida 2016 map full#

State environmental agencies do this on a regular basis, but understanding the full extent and evolution of fast-changing blooms, or predicting where they will move with ground sampling alone is a challenge. brevis is to analyze water samples collected from boats or beaches. One of the best ways to test for the presence of K. The damage grew so severe and widespread that Florida’s governor declared a state of emergency in mid-August. Though the bloom has been active since October 2017, it intensified rapidly in July 2018. For much of August, the toxic bloom stretched about 130 miles (200 kilometers) along Florida’s Gulf coast, from roughly Tampa to Fort Myers. Roughly 100 manatees, more than 200 sea turtles, and at least 12 dolphins have been killled by red tides, according to preliminary estimates.

That was enough to stain large swaths of coastal waters shades of green and brownish-red and leave beaches littered with rotting fish carcasses. Image from the University of South Florida Near Real-Time Integrated Red tide Information System (IRIS). Natural-color MODIS satellite image of algae staining the water off the coast of Fort Myers on August 19, 2018.